Organized shoplifting gangs are stealing with “impunity” as Waitrose reports a rapid rise in thefts.
The supermarket blamed “steal-to-order gangs” and anti-social behaviour.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said retail thefts across the sector in England and Wales rose by 26% in 2022.
In March, police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland recorded almost 33,000 incidents of shoplifting.
Waitrose is based at Bracknell in Berkshire.
Local Conservative MP James Sunderland said:
“Targeted shoplifting through organised retail crime is clearly on the rise.
“Gangs appear to be operating with impunity across the South East.
“There have been instances of violence to staff when they attempt to intervene, not just at Waitrose but all supermarkets.”
The John Lewis Partnership (JLP), which owns Waitrose, said it could not “speculate on the reasons”, it was seeing “rising numbers of shoplifting offences – often by organised gangs as well anti-social behaviour”.
JLP said that, while none of its staff had been seriously injured, some “have been threatened with weapons”, with “clearly an emotional cost to them if they feel threatened at work”.
Lucy Brown, director of security for JLP, told the BBC:
“We’re seeing a real increase – some are one-off offenders but the majority are shoplifting on a regular basis, switching across all retailers.
“They will use major transport infrastructure to hit every retailer in a particular town or city or high street.
“We’re also seeing a rise in organised crime with groups targeting stores – they want to take high volumes and high value in one hit.”
Shoplifting cost retailers £1 billion in 2021-22.